After some educated advice re: Getting out of impossible debt

BigCraigJohn

I'm basically in a position where i'm paying out over £600 a month and not paying off a penny. Ive got £20k in unsecured debt over 5 cards, 3 are reasonable with interest rates around 19% but thats only £7k of the debt the remaining debt is at 35%, ive not been perfect with repayments ie late often but ive always paid them monthly.
However the Capital one is currently £9500 and has been 1 month in arrears for 12 months and upon checking my credit history I see that despite me paying £3k in the last 12 months and not even using the card that the balance is actually higher now than it was 12 months ago. This was the last straw and tbh theres no point as i'll never pay it off so I may aswell do something about it. I'm a sole trader so have money at odd times but do generally have a good income I just dont get to see much of it, ive sold pretty much everything I own just to stay afloat but now my cards are maxed, credit history is pretty poor from late payments and ive had enough.
I had to move back with my parents but they really need me gone.
Thing is I dont want a way out I just want to pay them back but whats the point in paying when theres nothing being took off the balance.

Ideally I dont want to bankrupt as I imagine this will affect future business etc, just wondered what peoples views were here.

immoral_angeluk

You essentially have 3 options.
Debt Management Plan
IVA
Bankruptcy.

You need to work out what disposable income you have available as to whether you would be better off with a DMP, IVA or bankruptcy. To do this you need to do a financial statement showing your income and expenditure before your debt repyaments to see where you're at.
Are the debts business or personal? Do you have any assets?

To be fair with that level of debt even if a reasonable amount to repay your debts was £200, you would be repaying for 8 years. At 300 a month it would be 5/6 years. Unless you can afford to repay your debts in under 6 years, you're likely to be better off going for an IVA or bankruptcy. An IVA sounds more appropriate at first glance with your business worries though but I would recommend doing a financial statement first and seeing where you're at.

BigCraigJohn

No assets other than a £300 car and my laptop which are both used heavily for work, naff tv, printer etc. Debts are just credit cards although I owe ebay £600 which has moved on as far as a DCA, was a lot of robbing Peter to pay Paul going on.